Nintendo Wii U officially a massive flop, but Splatoon still amazes

The Nintendo Wii U is a huge failure, it's official! Sales figures released with the company's year end financial results confirm that it is likely to be the worst-selling console in Nintendo's history save for the Virtual Boy. But that doesn't really count as it was only on sale for a few months in the mid-90s.

Nintendo has, since the launch in November 2012, sold just 12.6 million Wii U consoles, with just over 3 million sold between April 2015 and the end of the year.

In comparison, Sony has sold almost 36 million PS4 consoles since 2013.

Even taking competitors out of the equation, Nintendo's other console that was considered a flop, the GameCube, sold almost 22 million units in its lifetime. It was on sale for six years in total, so even if the Wii U continued to sell in the same numbers it does currently (which is unlikely as there will be a natural decline), it will struggle to match the GameCube's final figures.

That said, while Wii U fans are not many, they are loyal. It has also been revealed in the figures that Nintendo sold more than four million copies of Splatoon since its release last May. That means that almost a third of the owners of the console bought a copy.